Emmanuel, The TikTok Famous Emu, Recovering From Avian Flu

Emmanuel Todd Lopez! Anyone who scrolls on TikTok probably knows that name and who it belongs to. Emmanual, an emu with a big personality, lives on Knuckle Bump Farms in South Florida with owner Taylor Blake, 29. In videos, he's often seen acting out, pecking at Blake's phone when she's trying to film content. But now sadly, poor Emmanuel, 7, is dealing with a bout of avian flu.

Over the weekend, Blake posted the news that the avian flu struck the farm on Twitter. "We’ve had an issue with wild Egyptian Geese flying into our farm. At one point, there were are many as 50 of them that would fly in every night at the same time. We would chase them off, and they would return under the cover of darkness," she wrote. "Not many people are aware of the dangers that wild birds pose to domesticated birds. Wild birds carry and transmit a deadly virus known as Avian Influenza. Our farm was heavily impacted by wild geese bringing in AI, and we lost 99% of the birds on our farm."

Her post continued in parts. "I cannot even begin to express the guttural feeling of watching innocent animals die. Daily. Innocent animals that did NOT deserve to die. It’s even harder to swallow the fact that we did nothing wrong, it was not our fault, and there’s nothing we could’ve done to prevent it," she explained. "I lost Emily, Eliza and Elliot. The virus hit them extremely hard and very quickly. I tried my best to save them, but I was unsuccessful. We lost every single chicken and duck on our farm. We lost all of our geese. We lost our 2 female black swans. We lost both of our turkeys."

In just three days, the farm devastatingly lost more than 50 birds. Just when Blake thought they were out of the woods, the farm's beloved and well-known emu, Emmanuel, came down with the illness. "I will do anything and go into any amount of debt to save his life. My vet came out and was able to sedate and stabilize him until I could find an avian specialist. I have been treating him around the clock since Wednesday," she wrote. "I am running on about 4hrs of sleep in 4 days bc all that matters to me is saving him. Currently, he is stable. His neurological symptoms have subsided but he still won’t eat or drink on his own. I am hand feeding him & giving him subcutaneous fluids every 2hrs around the clock."

She went on to explain that Emmanuel is a fighter, and Blake and her girlfriend are doing everything they possibly can to save him. "He is a fighter and I wholeheartedly believe he is going to make a full recovery. My girlfriend and I researched how to build a sling for an emu, but apparently there are absolutely zero resources for such a thing!" she explained. "We put our brains together and built Emmanuel a sling so that we can start physical therapy with him, in the hopes that he will regain function of his right foot/leg. We have been tweaking and perfecting it over the last 48hrs."

Emmanuel and Blake have a very close bond. She told PEOPLE a few months ago, "I love the fact that he loves me. He genuinely loves me." She started the TikTok account to showcase her grandparents' farm and it's been a big hit with more than 2.4 million followers.

Blake updated Emmanuel's fans on Twitter today with a little bit of good news! "EMMANUEL JUST DRANK WATER BY HIMSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE BECOMING ILL Please keep the prayers coming!" A few hours later, Blake updated everyone again.